"We're going to go after a lunar base," said Scott Horowitz, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The lunar base will be the central theme in NASA's going back to the moon effort, he said, in preparation to go to Mars and beyond.

    The base would be built in incremental steps, starting with four-person crews making several seven-day visits. The first mission would begin by 2020, with the base enlarging over time with the addition of more power, mobility rovers and living quarters.

    "The door is wide open in terms of participation by internationals," said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale," and that includes providing power, habitats, mobility on the lunar surface, as well as technology to use the resources on the moon to live off the land."

    Dale said "extensive dialogue with other countries" will take place in 2007 about the ways in which other countries want to participate in exploration activities.

    "I wouldn't see it evolving in the same way as the International Space Station," she said.

    NASA's lunar strategy is evolving from dialogue that has already taken place with 13 other space agencies, Dale explained. She said NASA also encourages participation by non-governmental organizations and commercial groups.

    NASA chief, Mike Griffin has also been emphasizing the role of international cooperation in the moon base project.

    Griffin spoke to the British Royal Society on Dec. 1 in London and pointed to the need for navigation infrastructure on the moon for future explorers and scientists.

    Griffin highlighted the scheduled launch in 2008 of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with its laser altimeter and other instruments than can produce an accurate global map of the moon for upcoming expeditions there.

    "We're still formulating our plans for providing communication and navigation for future explorers on the moon, but I can foresee NASA collaborating with other spacefaring nations like the United Kingdom in providing such infrastructure," Griffin told the British Royal Society.

    One vital question still to be answered is where to locate the moon base.

    "What we're looking at are polar locations -- both the north pole and south pole," said Dale.

    Selecting a location will take place after NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter begins surveying the moon following its launch in October 2008.

    One particular area that's already receiving high marks by NASA¡¯s lunar architecture team is at the South Pole -- a spot on the rim of Shackleton Crater that's almost permanently sunlit.

    "It's also adjacent to a permanently dark region in which there are potentially volatiles that we can extract and use," said NASA's Doug Cooke, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

    (Agencies)